CLINTON, OK – April 29, 2010 – The first green flag of the 2010 Midwest DIRTcar Late Model Series season is ready to fly.
An inaugural visit to Wild West Speedway in Clinton, Okla., is set for this Saturday night (May 1), propelling the growing tour into its exciting first season under the banner of the well-known DIRTcar Racing sanctioning body.
Saturday’s 30-lap, $1,000-to-win A-Main kicks off an important campaign for the second-year series, which currently boasts 12 dates at eight different tracks spread across Kansas and Oklahoma. Several additional events remain under negotiation.
“We’re looking forward to a great season,” said president Dusty Wiegert, a 27-year-old from Ramona, Kans., who led the formation of the MDLMS in the fall of 2008 and oversaw a six-race debut schedule in 2009. “Our goal this season is to impress the promoters with a competitive, entertaining show so that all of them will want to bring the series back in 2011 and other promoters will want to come on board as well.”
The MDLMS will begin its mission by putting DIRTcar Late Model racing in front of a Wild West Speedway crowd eager to witness the full-fender division’s unique brand of action. A steeply-banked, three-eighths-mile oval located one hour west of Oklahoma City on I-40, the track has not hosted a Late Model event in 15 years.
A solid field of drivers is expected to sign in at Wild West Speedway to begin chasing the MDLMS title and earning points toward the national and state/regional points programs associated with DIRTcar Racing’s UMP circuit. Entrants should include Gary Gorby of Caney, Kans., who will make his debut driving for the Collins Racing Team; Brad Fortney of Wichita, Kans.; brothers Tyler and Cale Gottschalk of Benton, Kans.; Cliff Morrow of Enid, Okla.; Andy Gerstenkorn of Independence, Kans.; Brookin Stephens of Muskogee, Okla.; and MDLMS Rookie of the Year candidates Doug Sieh of Wichita, Kans., and Darin Busch of Enid, Okla.
Wild West Speedway’s gates are scheduled to open at 5 p.m, with racing set to begin at 8 p.m.
Ticket prices are $15 for adults, $7 for youths 6-12 and free for kids 5-and-under. Pit passes will be $30.
More information on Wild West Speedway is available by visiting www.wildwestspeedway.com or calling 580-323-3993.
Saturday’s lidlifter begins a busy two-week period for the MDLMS, which will roll right back into action next weekend (May 7-8) with a big two-day ‘Six Shooter Showdown’ program at Dodge City (Kans.) Speedway. The doubleheader, which includes features paying $1,200 to win on Fri., May 7, and $1,500 to win on Sat., May 8, will mark the first time that the MDLMS will race under a co-sanction with its new DIRTcar Racing-sanctioned sister tour, the Colorado Late Model Association DIRTcar Series.
Dodge City’s ‘Six Shooter Showdown’ will serve as the season-opening events for the CLMA DIRTcar Series after the tour’s scheduled lidlifters were called off by bad weather on April 24 at Colorado Motorsports Park in Byers and April 25 at I-76 Speedway in Fort Morgan, Colo.
Many CLMS DIRTcar Series regulars will, however, have a chance to tune up for the Dodge City show by competing this Sunday (May 2) in the first DIRTcar-sanctioned Late Model event at the new Colorado Motorsports Park.
For more information on the Midwest DIRTcar Late Model Series, visit www.mdlms.net or call 336-DIRTCAR (336-347-8227).
Additional info on all of the series, sanctioning and member tracks of DIRTcar Racing is available at www.DIRTcar.com.
